It was a banner day — both good and bad — for nuclear power in Europe.
The continent’s confusion over the future of its energy policy was on full display Sunday, as Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was turned on in Finland just hours after Germany, the continent’s biggest economy, formally shut down its last nuclear reactor.
The striking juxtaposition comes as European countries have been forced to fundamentally rethink their energy market in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Oil and natural gas imports from Russia, once the European Union’s dominant supplier, have plummeted, leaving countries scrambling to find new suppliers to make up the shortfall.
Finland’s state-of-the-art Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor went online Sunday after months of operating delays. The plant by itself provides nearly a seventh of Finland’s power needs and is expected to producing electricity for “at least for the next 60 years,” operator TVO said in a statement.
Finnish power network overseer Fingrid said more than 50% of the Nordic country’s electricity is now generated by nuclear power.
By contrast, Germany has stuck to a pledge made more than a decade ago to get out of nuclear power altogether, a decision by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel in reaction to the devastation at the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan when it was hit by a tsunami in March 2011.
Current Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been under pressure to reverse Mrs. Merkel’s decision, particularly as old German coal- and natural gas-powered plants have been resurrected to replace the lost nuclear power.
Mr. Scholz agreed to delay the original Dec. 31 shutdown date, but the nuclear plants Emsland, Neckarwestheim and Isar II were closed for good shortly before midnight Saturday.
Anti-nuclear reactors held celebratory events outside the now-shuttered plants and in Berlin, The Associated Press reported.
But many say the policy is misguided at a time of so much supply uncertainty, and with the question of what to do with the nuclear waste built up by the German plants over the last six decades still unknown.
Markus Soeder, the state premier of Bavaria and head of the conservative Christian Social Union party, has said he is considering petitioning Berlin for the right to reopen and operate Isar II plant at the state level — an offer the Scholz government has so far rejected.
“While many countries in the world are even expanding nuclear power, Germany is doing the opposite,” Mr. Soeder told reporters Sunday. “We need every possible form of energy. Otherwise, we risk higher electricity prices and businesses moving away.”
Although German business groups say the decision to drop nuclear power could raise costs and hurt their competitiveness, the German economy is far less dependent on nuclear power than countries such as France and Finland.
Only about 5% or Germany’s domestic electricity needs are supplied by nuclear power.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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